A strategic role for tertiary education - Maharey

Responding to the needs of communitiesA
strategic role for tertiary education

Opening remarks at a
public meeting on tertiary education hosted by Ann Hartley,
Member of Parliament for Northcote, Zion Hill Methodist
Church Hall, Birkenhead.

INTRODUCTION

I’d like to start
by thanking Ann Hartley for giving me the opportunity to
speak to you tonight about tertiary education.

I think
most people realise nowadays that the strength of our
tertiary education system is pretty important for us as a
nation. Too often, though, people think that unless they are
part of the system themselves they don’t have very much to
contribute to any discussion about it.

I don’t think
that’s true. In fact, I think it’s absolutely vital that
both those who run individual tertiary education
institutions, and those who run the system as a whole, have
their ears wide open to hear from the wider community and
listen to their needs.

In many ways, the changes that the
Government is currently making in this area are largely
about opening tertiary education right up, and letting the
community in.

THE ROLE OF TEAC

Shortly after taking
office the Labour/Alliance Government established a Tertiary
Education Advisory Commission (TEAC). It was tasked to
provide advice on the future strategic direction of the New
Zealand tertiary education system.

Their first report set
out a broad vision that has informed their work ever since.
Their second report, Shaping the System, gave us the
steering mechanisms we will need to use our tertiary
education capability strategically. These are:


Charters for publicly-funded providers that are meaningful
and set out their special mission and contribution to the
system as a whole;

 Provider profiles to avoid
duplication and focus each provider on their specialties and
the needs of their stakeholders;

 A Centres of
Research Excellence Fund to foster excellence in areas of
strategic importance; and

 A Tertiary Education
Commission to bring the administration of the whole system
together under one agency, with strong involvement from
business and other stakeholders in its governance.

This
month we have also announced a $35 million Strategic Change
fund to help institutions adapt to the new environment, and
a tertiary efficiency study to identify opportunities, in
particular, from collaborative action between
institutions.

The Government has also agreed to develop a
Tertiary Education Strategy. This means we will need to set
out priorities for strategic investment in the
system.

TEAC’s third report addresses this. It recommends
a set of strategic priorities for the tertiary system, in
order that it contributes to the national goals for economic
and social development.

This is necessary if New Zealand
is to compete successfully in a global environment. This
marks a new phase for tertiary education policy in this
country.

THE CURRENT SITUATION AND THE CHALLENGE

Since
the education reforms undertaken by the Fourth Labour
Government in 1989-1990, the New Zealand tertiary education
system has made significant gains in terms of responsiveness
to student needs, and in terms of increasing national
participation levels.

The intent of those reforms was to
create a balance – with institutions getting the autonomy
they had been seeking and that autonomy being constrained by
carefully drawn up Charters setting out complementary
institutional missions.

In implementing those reforms,
however, instead of the proposed co-operative model, the
National government developed a market-place model. This
has placed some institutions at risk and resulted in a
fragmented system lacking in clear direction.

Our
challenge now is to provide future-focussed leadership to
the tertiary education system.

New Zealand now faces new
and demanding challenges in a period of rapid global change
– in technology, in communications, and in labour market
dynamics. The tertiary sector has a key role to play in
equipping New Zealand to meet these challenges and to take
advantage of the opportunities they create.

It also has a
fundamental role to play in promoting a vibrant cultural
identity, which places value on diversity, achievement and
innovation.

Tertiary education is one of this country’s
major public investments in building the skills and
capability needed for the future. To maximise the benefits
of this important investment, a paradigm shift is required.

The tertiary education system will no longer be solely
driven by the choices of consumers as it was during the
1990s, when it was too narrowly focussed on student demand
as the primary determinant of resource allocation.

Rather, the focus of the tertiary education system will
now be to produce the skills, knowledge and innovation that
New Zealand needs to:

 transform our
economy;

 promote social and cultural development;
and

 meet the rapidly changing requirements of
national and international labour markets.

Of course,
responsiveness to students will nonetheless remain a
critical part of the system.

This Labour/Alliance
Government will lead a shift to a co-operative and
collaborative sector, unified by a clear vision for the
future, which contributes effectively to New Zealand’s
development as a knowledge nation.

While maintaining
strong levels of participation, the tertiary education
system needs to be more explicitly aligned with wider
government goals for economic and social development.

The key message is that the tertiary education system can
no longer be seen in isolation from the Government’s wider
social and economic development initiatives and strategies.

THE TERTIARY EDUCATION STRATEGY

The tertiary education
system is diverse and complex. To achieve the paradigm shift
we need, across all areas of the system, it will require a
well-designed Tertiary Education Strategy

The tertiary
system includes learning in workplaces as well as classrooms
and laboratories. It includes long-established universities
and polytechnics and new training and research
establishments. It includes full-time and part-time
learners, adults and school leavers, learning in lecture
theatres and learning by distance.

The Tertiary
Education Strategy will cover the whole tertiary education
system, and will have linkages with the compulsory education
system and the labour market. All elements of the system
need to be performing to the highest standards to ensure we
develop the skills, capabilities and knowledge that New
Zealand requires for the future.

The Tertiary Education
Strategy will outline how the tertiary education system will
achieve the paradigm shift from looking inwards at
consumers, to looking outwards at how it can:


contribute to New Zealand’s goals for economic and social
development;

 produce the knowledge that New
Zealand needs to be a world leader in innovation;


produce the skills and competencies that New Zealanders need
in order to fuel our economic growth; and

 develop
the capabilities within the sector to meet the needs and
expectations of enterprise and communities.

The Strategy
will outline priorities and milestones for the next three to
five years and inform policy direction, purchasing decisions
and capability building by the TEC, as well as provide a
framework within which the tertiary education system can
develop.

A NATIONAL DEBATE

The development of new
strategies for the tertiary system cannot be undertaken
without continued dialogue with the sector and the public.
We want to encourage wide-ranging debate.

Tertiary
education is key to all sectors of New Zealand – businesses,
industries, schools, community organisations, research
institutes, iwi and Mäori organisations, and Pacific
communities. That’s why we want to know what the tertiary
education priorities are for every sector.

The Government
invites your feedback, questions and suggestions on the
priorities recommended in TEAC’s report -- as well as your
own priorities for tertiary education -- by 31 October 2001.

You can write, fax or email. We have also set up a
consultation website, at
www.talktertiarystrategy.minedu.govt.nz

We intend to
release a draft Tertiary Education Strategy, based on the
discussion and consultation process, in December this year,
and to finalise the Strategy by March
2002.

CONCLUSION

In deciding what our requirements
for tertiary education are, we need to think about our
needs, not only as a knowledge nation, but also as a
particular kind of knowledge nation.

We already know that
if we are to become a nation that uses knowledge in all we
do, we have to invest in information technology, research
and development, innovation, skills training, lifting
educational levels and ensuring New Zealanders learn what
they need to function in a global environment.

But
identifying our particular path in the knowledge age will be
a key task for this Government, and I hope it will be our
lasting legacy. The Knowledge Wave conference earlier this
month was a timely addition to these
deliberations.

Between the Knowledge Wave, the Science and
Innovation Advisory Council report on an innovation
framework for New Zealand, and the contribution of Shaping
the System, I am hoping for a period of intellectual
ferment.

We have to decide what we have competitive
advantages in. In the context of globalisation there is no
sense in New Zealand trying to be the best at everything.
We need to play to our strengths.

We need to decide where
to invest. In my opinion land-based industries like fishing,
agriculture, aquaculture are obvious points of leverage. So
too are tourism and the new industries like film that rely
on our unique location

But I urge you all to put forward
your own views. Get personally involved in the debate about
the future!

I want to see people becoming impassioned
about what our best path to a knowledge society is. It’s a
subject that should provoke strong feelings, because it’s so
important to our future as a nation.

I want to say to all
of you, get behind the cause of the knowledge society in
general. Argue about the nature of the New Zealand knowledge
society in particular! Government needs to forge a strategic
partnership with business to work through this, and come up
with a sustainable answer.

Because what we have to do is
settle on this. We do finally have to come to a point where
we are starting to say that we all agree. Otherwise we’ll be
back here in ten years time with a nice list of things that
we’ve done but there will have been no real push in any
particular direction.

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